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Sunday, March 7, 2010

Around here, I'm pretty used to being able to unleash my creative energy whenever it comes to baking. Generally, at least from what people tell me directly, the unique ingredients and methods I use to come up with things such as purple pasta, summer fruit pies, ancho-chicken cacciatore, numerous (and boozy) cakes and even a whole competition menu are welcome changes to the typical bakery and restaurant-catered fare. To me, having at least one home made item out on the table shows that you actually care for your guests - anyone can call a restaurant and take out a catered affair, but it's the little quirks and imperfections in a dish - a lopsided cake, cookies that are a bit too overdone or a lasagne that's cut into not-so-even squares - that make the whole "party at home" thing worthwhile.

Oddly enough, even though I'm told to my face that what I make is (and I quote) "great", "delicious", and "wonderful" by guests, my own family is incredibly hesitant to allow me to utilize my forte, baking, for any sort of get-together. Actually, they don't like me making things for even just "the family" (read: the spoiled Italianos). According to my mom, people that come over don't like things that aren't "usual", and would rather have storebought bread/cakes/pies/etc. than something I made. So it's been a struggle! Everything that I've managed to share with the family so far has been the result of a mixture of white lies and outright fights. Le sigh. What can you do?

So anyways, post rant now *deep breaths*... cheesecake. Well, for her birthday party this year, my mom got it into her head that she wanted lemon cheesecake. Now, not only did she want lemon cheesecake, but she wanted to make it herself (points to her for that, but it is her birthday... it's not right!). She also wanted one made with ricotta, that was smooth and creamy but not heavy, not too sweet, nice and lemony but not sour. Now, as she's telling me all this, I'm mentally sifting through all my cheesecake recipes for a ricotta one I can use as a base - I was envisioning honey-lemon, creamy mascarpone blending with ricotta, an extra yolk perhaps for colour and richness. I was actually getting quite excited at the thought of making this recipe for her. Then she dropped the bomb - she wanted it to be a "real" recipe, not "one of those ones you make up". Because apparently, those aren't real. Okay then... wounded pride aside, I turned to my little cache of white lies and stuck Giada's name on it, since the inspiration for it did come from her via Joseph Erdos. It worked, though!

Then came the panicking, or as I like to call it "the night I almost killed her". My mom, you see, hadn't made a cheesecake in about 8 years... and never one with a "bain marie" method of cooking. Nevermind even adding things like ricotta to the mix! So it became a night of constant reassurances and occasionally my sister and I restraining her as she kept opening the oven door to check on it. In the end, both she and the guests got a delicious treat - not a crack, not a leak, and a perfect marriage of flavours. In fact, my mom even saved a piece in the freezer to eat like ice cream when they return from their two weeks in Italy!

After the dishes were all washed and cleared away, and the guests were all in various states of satiety, I turned to my mom and said "so I guess I can let you know now that I wrote that cheesecake recipe, right?". I'm not sure if she overly cared at that point, because she didn't reply!

Dude: my father-in-law actually got so upset with all of our cooking that we went to stay with friends, two years ago when we were home for the holidays. He lasted all of a WEEK with us in his house, not even cooking for him - just sharing fridge and stove space!

Find people that like to be given food, give it to them, and quit cooking for your ungrateful family. It's simply not worth the stress, and when your friends brag on your cooking, well, they'll get over themselves.